Castle of Black Iron

On June 11th, after Zhang Tie and Jinyun Country’s airship troop carried out one-week patrol in the theater of operations, they moved to a large-scale airship center called C over 50 km behind Volv City.

This was Zhang Tie’s 3rd time here in the past one month. Therefore, this place was not strange to him anymore.

The constant two days’ storm symbolized the beginning of the rainy season in this summer on the Selnes Plain. The two days’ storm did not influence the action of the airship troop and the gliders on the airships, except for Zhang Tie.

When the Idiots landed, the moment Zhang Tie stepped out of the hatch door in the military boots had he seen some ground service ambulance vehicles flashed by him, spraying water onto his trouser legs and shoes.

The shallow puddles on the ground carried a lot of coal ash. When it sprayed on Zhang Tie’s trousers, it caused a lot of black spots. The sprayed water pleasantly stained Zhang Tie’s wholly-new military uniform regardless of his status as Selnes Eagle.

Lowering his head, Zhang Tie watched his trousers and shoes which were covered with black spots, then the direction where the ground service vehicles headed for. He then slightly shook his head. Zhang Tie didn’t care about that as he walked towards the flagship airship of Jinyun Country where Lan Yunxi was.

It was still raining; however, it was much lighter than before. Wearing a water-proof raincoat, Zhang Tie strolled on the road of the airship center C. At this moment, a concern flashed across his mind. This concern did not come from those mud spots on his trouser, but from the situation in the past one week. Zhang Tie found that all the wing demons had disappeared for three consecutive days. He realized it was not a good symbol.

Demons didn’t shrink; wing demons didn’t appear. It meant that demons must have already worked out a new tactic to deal with humans.

The atmosphere in Base C also seemed to be a bit intense. This time, Zhang Tie found too many security guards were placed here. One more battle fortress was founded 7 km away in the north of the base. Additionally, the barbed wires and patrolling troops outside the base increased.

At this moment, there were over 3000 airships in the airship base of Volv City. Like an airship exhibition attended by countries across Waii Sub-Continent, airships were taking off and landing within dozens of square kilometers. When Zhang Tie came here for the first time, he was amazed by what he saw. Now, he had been accustomed to that.

Artists and poets might find something in war which could arouse their inspiration and passion; however, for a person who indeed participated in the progress of the war, all of his illusions and romantic factors would be broken into pieces by the cruelty of war in an extremely short period. In this case, he only thought about how to survive himself and how to kill enemies.

People came and went in Base C. Almost nobody else would like to ramble in the rain. They all trotted or drove their vehicles fast on the road. Those airships landing in the base made the ground servicemen busy. They started to provide various supplies for airships. By contrast, those crew members in the landing airships would pour into the strip clubs and brothels around the base.

Although Zhang Tie was walking, his speed almost caught the others’ trotting speed. Nobody could recognize him on the way. During the past one month, Zhang Tie’s name didn’t appear on the ’Holy War News’ anymore. He didn’t even update his military exploits on the Military Exploits Rankings in Crystal Battle Fortress. In this case, he gradually faded out of the public’s vision.

When he arrived at Lan Yunxi’ flagship airship, he found a greater part of chief commanders of fleets of Jinyun Country had arrived there. Among those whose lowest military rank was lieutenant colonel, Zhang Tie’s military rank as sergeant first class became a bit eye-catching. However, Zhang Tie was an exception as he wore the unique uniform of air cavalry. He was also qualified to attend the summit of the fleets.

All the attendants were young elites from the six big clans of Jinyun Country. These people paid more attention to the military exploits rankings than their military ranks. Therefore, nobody refused Zhang Tie to attend the conference.

Many of them were those who had lost the bet with Zhang Tie. After watching Zhang Tie’s powerful performance in the sky, they all became silent. They were very polite to Zhang Tie now.

Those who had come here were discussing at the conference table in a low voice. Zhang Tie’s seat was in the middle of the right side of the conference table. The moment he sat down had a guy with the military rank of lieutenant colonel drawn closer to him, ”Have you found that something is not right in the theater of operations?”

Zhang Tie nodded with a solemn look.

The one who talked with Zhang Tie was Wang Cheng, an apprentice of Wang Clan, one of the six top clans in Jinyun Country and a chief commander of the No. 7 fleet of the airship troop. He was an easy-going guy. After meeting Zhang Tie for a few times here, he had become familiar with Zhang Tie.

When Zhang Tie came to Base C last time, this chief and some young commission officers drank over night in the commission officers club. That night, those guys wanted to make Zhang Tie drunk; however, they had not imagined that Zhang Tie could move all the alcohol from his mouth to the Pool of Chaos in Castle of Black Iron. As a result, over 10 people could not defeat Zhang Tie, even in turns.

After that, Zhang Tie was better known as alcoholic than Selnes Eagle among the airship troop of Jinyun Country. He was almost like a king at the table.

Wang Cheng’s concern was verified soon. After a few minutes, when all the commission officers arrived, Lan Yunxi, in major’s military uniform appeared with an overwhelming qi.

When she entered, all the commission officers on both sides of the conference table stood up, including Zhang Tie.

Lan Yunxi just glanced over their looks. When she caught sight of Zhang Tie, she watched him for 0.3 seconds longer, which satisfied Zhang Tie’s vanity to a certain degree. She then nodded as everybody sat down.

”The latest news, the airship troop of Francia Federation has been annihilated by demons yesterday...”

Soon after that, the conference room froze at once.

After being quiet for about half a minute, someone asked in a hoarse voice, ”Erm...is it real?”

”The alliance command has already dispatched some demon hunting squads to check the spot. Based on the analysis result, the airship troop of Francia Federation was annihilated by demons in less than 20 minutes!” Lan Yunxi replied calmly.

”That’s impossible! Although the performance of the airships of Francia Federation’s airship troop was a bit worse than that of fury-level airships, that’s a fleet of over 500 large-scale battle airships. How could demons annihilate such a fleet in 20 minutes?” a commission officer shouted.

”That’s real. The possibilities are just judged by our experiences!” Lan Yunxi watched that commission officer with a wise look, ”Before we say impossible, we’d better ask ourselves our reference. Whether our reference is too powerful to be unshakable, or whether it’s made according to our habit or willingness. In this conference, we’re not talking about whether it’s possible or impossible. Because it’s unnecessary for us to do that. The priority is to clarify how did demons make it and how should we deal with them.”

Zhang Tie was also considering about Lan Yunxi’s words while lowering his head. Zhang Tie had to admit that Lan Yunxi, as a commander was more excellent than him in many aspects. This was also why she could have these people follow her orders. Zhang Tie learned many things from Lan Yunxi.

Zhang Tie was not good at analyzing and judging such an overall situation. After being silent for a few seconds, when the others were frowning and thinking about Lan Yunxi’s words, Zhang Tie opened his mouth. Actually, among all these at present, Zhang Tie knew wing demons best.

According to Zhang Tie’s judgment, it must be wing demons who annihilated human airship troop in such a short period.

”When you’re thinking about how demons made it, I hope you know that in the last few days, I found that the number of wing demons had decreased by over 90%. That is very abnormal. After combining with the accident of Francia Federation’s airship troop, I think demons might have changed their tactic. How did they make it? I think the main corps of demons might have changed the deployment of wing demons troops!”

Zhang Tie’s words shocked everyone as they all focused on Zhang Tie.

”In the past, wing demons always attended the battle by a group of two or three, or 8-10 at most. They just strayed and sought for opportunities in the air like wild wolves. But now, I think they have started to throw in wing demons collectively. If they wanted to annihilate a fleet of over 500 battle airships in 20 minutes, they had to put in at least 1000 wing demons at once. With the help of weather, when the human airship troop didn’t have the gliders to make early warning, those wing demons raided into the matrix of the airship troop while being covered by clouds or terrains before successfully annihilating the fleet in such a short period!”

After saying that, Zhang Tie found a bit admiration and encouragement in Lan Yunxi’s eyes. At the sight of Lan Yunxi’s eyes, he immediately knew that Lan Yunxi knew the truth of this event.

The moment Zhang Tie finished his words, many people started to discuss about that. After a hot discussion, they all agreed with Zhang Tie’s opinion——demons indeed have changed the deployment of wing demons.

”This is serious for each people in Selnes Theater of Operations. If demons have started to put in wing demons collectively, it means that the main corps of demons have already found humans’ shortcomings in the defense line of Selnes Theater of Operations.”

”Air supremacy is humans’ powerful umbrella in the Selnes defense line. Under the protection of this umbrella, the human ground troops could fight demon corps; however, if they lost this umbrella, the human ground troops would not stand too long in front of the overwhelming demon corps. ”

”The air supremacy of the human defense line relies on its powerful airship troop. However, the human airship troop has a shortcoming in Selnes Theater of Operations, which doesn’t expose itself until the opponent changed the tactic of their wing demons.”

”Sometimes, wars are supported by a lot of strange math principles and relativity.”

”It is the principle of probability which exposes the shortcoming of human airship troop.”

”When wing demons appear in Selnes Theater of Operations sparsely, all the airship troops probably meet wing demons in the air. Comparatively, it will be less possible for large-scale airship troops to be annihilated by wing demons. Because the human airship troops will outnumber wing demons. Humans will firmly take the air supremacy of Selnes defense line.”

”This is the confrontation between two nets in the air.”

”If demons put in wing demons collectively, the above situation would change. The human airship troop might not easily meet wing demons in the air anymore. Because wing demons’ moving space and time is limited; once they meet in the air, the strength comparison between humans and demons will reverse at once. As a result, the human airship troop probably will be annihilated.”

”Wing demons could gain relative air supremacy at a certain time and place. Through this relative air supremacy, the advantage of human airship troop would be weakened step by step.”

”Demons could put in wing demons collectively without any limit. Being restricted by the flight principles of airships, commanding and communication level as well as other objective conditions, the human airship troops could not make this. Even if they barely made it, they would not have any effect. ”

”If tens of thousands of airships moved in the sky at the same time, suppose they were in the most dense array, they would occupy at least dozens of square km. Unless demons were blind, such an airship troop’s move would not have any effect at all. Additionally, demons could attack humans by chance. Given the power of Three-eye Association in this theater of operations, I’m afraid that the moment such a move order was delivered to the airship troops would the demons know about that.”

”After confronting with human allied forces in Selnes Theater of Operations for months, when the rainy season arrived this year, the demon corps finally found the shortcoming of human defense line through constant skirmishes with the allied human forces. They then started to tear open the air umbrella of humans in Selnes Theater of Operations.”

”The demons’ net became a saber and started to forcefully make a hole on the cover of the umbrella...”

With the explanation of Lan Yunxi and the others’ discussion, Zhang Tie, who listened aside became hopeless.

”Don’t demons have any shortcoming?”

”No, demons are sparing a chance for us to heavily destroy their ground troop. They have to suffer a loss by changing the tactic of their wing demon troop...” when the others felt gloomy, Lan Yunxi’s firm voice drifted in Zhang Tie’s ears...